Desaturate an image

[JCook]

Is there a way to desaturate an image in ASPro 7 and animate it? In other words, start with the image in color, and then gradually have it become a grayscale image. I can make a duplicate image in Photoshop and desaturate it there and then animate a dissolve between two image layers in ASPro, but I'm wondering if it can be done right in the program.

Using ASPro7 on OS 10.5.8.

thanks,
Jack

[slowtiger]

No, there's no option like that in AS.

Stuff like this normally would be done in a compositing program or a video editor. But if you don't have one of these and need the effect in animation, here's a trick:

Isolate the layer(s) you want to become grayscale and switch off visibility for everything else. Render this two times:
- one pass with PNG codec, millions+ colours - this will give you an alpha channel.
- second pass with PNG codec, 256 grays - this will give you the desaturated image.

Now toggle the visibility and render the other layers (in 2 portions if they are in front and behind the gray layer) with PNG codec, millions+ colours.

Import all those videos into a new AS project, put pass 1 and 2 into a group, and make pass 1 the mask of pass 2. Duplicate pass 1. Setup like this:

- foreground (colour)
- group (hide all)
- - pass 1 (don't mask) <-- this is the layer you animate the opacity to get the blend effect.
- - pass 2 (mask this)
- - pass 1 (add to mask, keep invisible)
- background (colour)

The same principle applies to other effects: isolate the FX layer, render several passes, and play with masks and opacity.

[sbtamu]

I have done this in the past. What I do is import an image then duplicate it then set both images to allow animated layer effects. Next, I set one image to 0 opacity at frame 0 and 100% at somewhere in the time line, then i set the other image to 100% opacity at frame 0 and 0 opacity at somewhere in the time line(make sure both images are at same point in the time line) You can use Toon/image setting to gray scale one of the images.

Make sure You do not translate any of the images.

I forgot to mention that with the Toon effect, the saturation can go in the negative. The image example I did below is 0 edge, 255 gray scale, 0 black and -150 saturation.

example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EysnuT4ASw

[JCook]

Thanks to both of you for the replies.

sbtamu, that works like a charm except that when applying the toon effect I lose the detail in the picture. It might just work anyway, as what I am doing is showing coral dying (I'm using photos for this). After turning gray it'll disappear, so the degradation of detail might work towards the effect.

Thanks for your help.
Jack

[sbtamu]

As slowtiger stated above, I think using an editor will give much better results.

On this one I just took the image and imported to GIMP, selected Hue/saturation and set it to -100(make sure not to change the size of the image)and saved (took all of 30 seconds with free software.) Then I imported the new and old images to AS7 and followed my original opacity for each image. It give a much better result.

example 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCxSNRHn39A

Stephen.

[Víctor Paredes]

On the top of layer order, create a new layer with a black rectangle. Go to layer proprieties and select "Color" as blend mode.
Render a preview, your image will by on grayscale.

If you want an animated fade, simply play with layer opacity.

PD: On layer proprieties you can check "Hide in editing view" to work easily.

[slowtiger]

Selgin: muchas elegante! Much easier than my suggestion. I never used that layer mode anywhere.

[JCook]

Yes! That's it. Thank you, Selgin! I've never actually used the layer modes (because I don't really understand how they work), so this is a perfect solution. Since I'm graying out specific parts of the image and don't want a square to show, or the whole thing to turn gray I put everything in a group and made a mask. This works like a charm. I put the color image in the group just under the black rectangle, and it's fine. Keying the visibility of the black rectangle layer gives me the effect I want. Thank you so much, Selgin!

Jack

[Víctor Paredes]

Hehe, you are welcome
I discovered it some time ago by trial and error. I posted it on forum, but couldn't find it now.

PD: thank you for the effort, Slowtiger, but you actually said something like "a lot of elegant woman". But don't worry, I know you wanted to say "¡Muy elegante!" which is the more direct translation of "Very elegant", I think.
I suppose I make a lot of this kind of mistakes on all my posts, so I can forgive you if you do it too

[slowtiger]

Your english is definitely much better than my spanish, which consists of only some random words I picked up when I was in holiday in spain when I was 13 ...

[heyvern]

The only Spanish I know was taught to me by coworkers when I was a teenager. I have discovered since then I can never ever ever repeat those phrases to anyone who understands Spanish. I made that mistake a few years back while at a resort in Mexico.

-vern

[sbtamu]

I should be shamed of my self. I was born in Spain, my wife is Mexican, Ive lived In Texas for 30 years where Spanish is second nature to most and the only words I know are the ones my wife calls me when she is mad.

[uddhava]

Selgin, great tip. Thanks!

udd